This Saturday, an undefeated James side took on the best of the rest – a college hockey Barbarians XI. James were vying to maintain their unbeaten season, possibly for the first time in college hockey history!
With numerical superiority and the advantage of having played together all year, James were the pre-match bookies favourites, although the Barbarians, with Simon Varley in their midst, were determined to provide an upset.
The match began a very open affair, with both teams storming through the middle of the pitch only to be halted by the opposition’s defence. James had the better of the early opportunities, and the score line only remained 0-0 due to the excellence of Varley on the line.
Although the Barbs had many strong individual players, such as Charles Williams and Matt Pheasant who were keen to push up the field, the team as a whole lacked co-ordination, and the experienced defensive partnership of Emily Arter and Jambo Talbot proved unassailable during early encounters.
James eventually broke the deadlock after great work by Dec Hall and Nick Mitchell resulted in Joss Winter, James’ top goal scorer, powering in a strong shot from the middle of the D.
Two more goals in quick succession, one a penalty goal and one a simple tap in at the far post by Midchell, saw James in full control.
However, the Barbarians were allowed back into the game as the irreplaceable Chris Butterworth subbed himself off, leaving James an uncoordinated, rambling mess, not dissimilar to a collection of the Willow queue’s finest.
The Barbs capitalised on James’ temporary confusion, scoring three great team goals, although one was definitely the result of some rather suspect goal hanging from Graham Osbourne (very unsporting for a YUSU officer).
James were unable to cope with the pace, directness and precision passing of the Barbs, with the Bloke in the Yellow t-shirt proving particularly difficult to handle. However, order was restored to the pitch when the, someone would say, extraordinary Butterworth returned, aided by his more than capable, and extremely beautiful co-captain Poppy Bullard.
James were at this point searching for a winner, but a combination of a now outfield Varley (stick to being in goal mate) and his goal-line replacement Andy Lister were proving difficult to score against.
After a stern talking to at half time, James knew they had one player to whom they could turn for an inspirational turn around. Despite having taken several falls whilst tackling opponents more than twice her height, the indomitable Millie Greenwood burst into the Barbs D, after some speedy running by Ashley Collinson, and was able to cooly slot the ball home, beating the otherwise fantastic Lister.
Despite great attacking play from both sides, the game was seen out goal-less from this point, with James only facing a few minutes of sustained pressure from their opponents. All in all, a great game (except, bless him, for Varley), played in the college spirit.
Visions MOM: Charles Williams, top work